Chapter 232: A New Discovery
Feeling the black stone's strength steadily diminishing, Drogon continued bathing it in black dragonfire. At the same time, he shifted the writhing mass entirely into his right claw.
Then, with a sudden burst of force, he flung it violently back onto the ground.
The instant it left his grasp, he activated his shrinking ability and shot toward the entrance of the great hall.
The black stone crashed onto the floor. Just as it prepared to repeat its previous attack and lunge after him, it discovered that Drogon had already shrunk and flown out of the hall.
Although it had lost well over half its original mass, the creature still refused to give up.
It slithered after Drogon, leaving the hall.
The moment it crossed the doorway—
A torrent of black dragonfire descended upon it once more.
Locking onto Drogon's position, the now much smaller humanoid black stone bent its legs and launched itself toward him again.
Drogon had expected exactly that.
The instant it crouched, he flew higher into the air.
The creature missed completely.
Now Drogon had a good estimate of its maximum jumping height.
At this distance, it could no longer threaten him while he attacked safely from the edge of his dragonfire's range.
Confident now, he closed in again and continued burning it.
The black stone refused to surrender.
Again and again it leaped desperately toward him.
Again and again it failed.
Time passed.
The creature steadily shrank.
Its jumping ability weakened.
Eventually it could no longer even maintain a humanoid form.
After continuous burning, it had dwindled to the size of a football, yet it still pulsed rhythmically, swelling and contracting exactly like the Night King's fleshy mass had done before.
Having witnessed the black stone come alive with his own eyes, Drogon could now say with certainty—
The Night King and this black stone were fundamentally the same kind of existence.
The only mystery remaining was why other structures built from the same black stone—the base of the towering lighthouse at Oldtown, the Seastone Chair of the Iron Islands, the Black Walls of Volantis, and countless other black stone constructions—had never transformed into living creatures like the throne's foundation had.
He still didn't understand what made this one different.
But fortunately...
The others hadn't awakened.
Otherwise, he couldn't even imagine what the world would have become.
After all, he had personally experienced the horrifying chorus of screams and wails emanating from the black stone.
Even as a Dragon God, he had nearly failed to withstand that overwhelming psychic assault.
An ordinary person would have stood no chance.
Their mind would have shattered almost instantly.
At the same time, Drogon also became acutely aware of one of his greatest weaknesses.
His body was incredibly powerful...
But his mind was comparatively fragile.
Adins had mentioned this weakness before. It was a flaw shared by all gods with physical bodies.
Worse still, there was no shortcut to strengthening one's mind.
Mental resilience could only grow alongside the strength of the physical body.
On the ground, the black stone—now shrunk into a writhing lump—continued to melt away beneath the relentless dragonfire.
At last, nothing remained except a pure white orb of divine essence.
It was roughly the same size as the divine core left behind by the Night King, but it shone several times brighter. Drogon could clearly sense the vastly greater power contained within it.
Before the divine core could dissipate, he lowered his head and inhaled.
The glowing particles immediately streamed into his open maw.
As the divine energy flowed into his body, a transformation began from the inside out.
The most obvious change was to his forelegs.
The limbs that had been burned to charred bone by his own dragonfire rapidly began to heal before his eyes. The blackened flesh peeled away, fresh muscle regenerated, and new tissue spread across the exposed bones.
Having already experienced the agony of his full-body evolution before, Drogon barely regarded these injuries as painful.
They were simply...
Incredibly itchy.
Once the last of the divine energy had been absorbed, the regeneration slowed.
The flesh had almost completely recovered, but new scales had yet to form.
His forelegs looked unnaturally pink and raw, an unsettling sight.
After examining himself, Drogon estimated that both his physical strength and spiritual power had increased by roughly one-third.
His outward appearance had changed less dramatically.
His wingspan had expanded by another fifty meters, and his body had grown until it rivaled a thirty-meter warship in size.
"Hmm?"
Just as he was preparing to leave and reunite with Daenerys, Drogon noticed something new.
He had awakened another innate ability.
Dragon God's Blessing.
Its effect was simple:
It strengthened draconic bloodlines and unlocked their hidden potential.
It also worked on other living creatures, although with reduced effectiveness.
The first ones Drogon thought of were Rhaegal and Viserion.
Although he had trained them rigorously since they hatched, they still lagged far behind him.
With this blessing, they should finally be able to close the gap, at least a little.
The encounter with the disgusting black stone had been revolting, but the rewards were equally impressive.
The process, however, had been dangerously close.
If that slimy creature had managed to crawl into his mouth or nostrils...
Just imagining it made his scales crawl.
Looking around the sky, Drogon suddenly realized he couldn't see Rhaegal anywhere.
His heart skipped a beat.
He immediately shot eastward.
Only after leaving the city did he finally spot them.
Rhaegal was lying on the ground, while Daenerys leaned weakly against the green dragon's side.
As he drew closer, Drogon noticed something was wrong.
Rhaegal snorted heavily, her fiery eyes bloodshot.
Daenerys looked no better.
Her eyes were equally red, her teeth clenched, veins bulging along her neck as she struggled to suppress something raging inside her.
Seeing their condition, Drogon realized that the black stone's influence extended much farther than he'd expected.
The moment he saw Rhaegal, he remembered his newly acquired ability.
Landing beside her, he gently rested his still-raw right claw atop her head.
Activating Dragon God's Blessing, a soft white radiance emerged from his claw before sinking into her body.
Daenerys stared blankly at the glowing light.
She completely forgot the turmoil in her own mind—and even forgot about Drogon's freshly flayed-looking foreleg.
After bestowing the blessing, Drogon carefully observed Rhaegal.
Her mental state stabilized almost immediately.
The agitation disappeared.
The redness faded from her eyes.
Beyond that, there were no obvious physical changes.
Perhaps the strengthening of her bloodline would take time to manifest.
But one thing was certain.
The blessing had cleansed the corruption left by the black stone.
A built-in debuff cleanse...
Drogon silently noted the unexpected secondary effect of Dragon God's Blessing.
Turning toward Daenerys, he found her still staring at him with bloodshot eyes.
He stepped closer, placed his claw gently atop her head, and activated the blessing once more.
Warmth flowed from Drogon's claw into her body.
A comforting heat spread through her from head to toe.
The maddening impulses she had been desperately suppressing vanished in an instant.
Opening her eyes, Daenerys looked up at Drogon.
She was about to ask about the mysterious white light when her gaze fell upon his crimson forelegs—bare flesh without a single scale.
Only then did she remember what she had overlooked while watching the blessing.
"Drogon... what happened to your claws?"
Walking beneath his massive body, Daenerys looked up with reddened eyes.
Because the new flesh had only just regenerated, Drogon could support himself only with his hind legs.
[I'm fine. The scales will grow back in a couple of days.]
He tried to reassure her.
Daenerys had witnessed the horrifying full-body reconstruction during Drogon's evolution.
She knew these injuries couldn't compare to what he had endured then.
Even so...
Her heart still ached.
After climbing back onto his back, she noticed that Drogon had grown noticeably larger once again.
Remembering how she and Rhaegal had nearly fallen from the sky earlier, she finally asked,
[Drogon... what exactly happened inside there?]
"There was a black stone there—a living one. It could corrupt the mind. I destroyed it."
Sooner or later, Daenerys would have to learn about the black stones, so Drogon saw no reason to hide the truth.
Only then did she understand the source of the violent urges that had overwhelmed her while riding on Rhaegal.
She hadn't been the only one affected.
Even Rhaegal had lost control of her flight and had been forced to land immediately.
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